Requesting Your Free SSL Certificate
In this video, we will request your free SSL certificate. Let’s get started.
Step 1: Review Your Hosting Records
- Open your Google Doc where you’ve been recording your hosting records.
- Copy your domain name, ensuring there is no "https" or "www" prefix.
Step 2: Navigate to AWS Certificate Manager
- Go to the AWS Certificate Manager in your AWS console.
- Confirm you are in the United States North Virginia Region.
- Important: You must be in this region to receive your free SSL certificate.
- Once confirmed, click the Request button.
Step 3: Request Your Certificate
- Ensure the Request a Public Certificate option is selected, then click Next.
- Paste your domain name from the Google Doc into the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) field.
- Click Add another name to this certificate.
- In the new field, type n asterisk (*) and a dot (.) before pasting your domain name again.
- This creates your wildcard domain name.
- Double-check that there are no spaces.
- Scroll down and ensure DNS validation and RSA 2048 are selected.
- Click Request.
Step 4: Pending Validation
- You will now be redirected to a screen where your SSL certificate status will show as Pending Validation.
- Wait up to 1 minute for the CNAME Name and CNAME Value to appear.
- Step 5: Record Your CNAME Information
- Note that the records for both your domain and wildcard domain are identical.
- Copy the CNAME Name and paste it into your Google Doc.
- Repeat this step for the CNAME Value.
You have successfully requested your SSL certificate and recorded your CNAME records. This lesson is now complete.
In the next lesson, we’ll add the CNAME record to your domain. Please proceed to that lesson.
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